Whitefish Can't Jump

Clean Water Act under attack

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:31:43 -0800

The American economy has performed well over the past four decades: real per capita income has doubled since 1970 and pollution is down even with 50 percent more people. The choice between a healthy environment and a healthy economy is a false one. They stand, or fall, together. We’ve been blessed in the United States with abundant water resources. But we also face daunting challenges that are putting new demands on those resources — continuing growth; the need for water for food, energy production and manufacturing; the push for biofuel crops; the threat of new contaminants; climate change and just maintaining and restoring our natural systems.

If we narrow our vision of the Clean Water Act, if we buy into the misguided notion that reducing protection of our waters will somehow ignite the economy, we will shortchange our health, environment and economy.

I don’t quite understand why the EPA is coming under so much attack this election cycle. I get that some people find any and all regulation reprehensible, but if the government shouldn’t be the ones to regulate the environment, then who should? Perhaps an independent commission of executives from BP, Exxon, et. al.? Ya, that’s probably the right solution.

Temperature gauge on the Wilson

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:56:53 -0800

It’s always been a pet-peeve not having access to any realtime (or otherwise) water temperature data on the Oregon coast. Sure, one can deduce from air temperature, but that only goes so far.

Well, watching the Wilson hitting floodstage today (it’s risen 7’ in the past 24 hours), I noticed that the gauge has been upgraded and now includes temperature, which is a balmy 47F right now.

Pretty handy, and a good barometer for the rest of the coast.

Watch Condit Dam removal live

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:42:25 -0700

Condit Dam, and century old fish passage barrier on Washington’s White Salmon River, is being removed today. The blast event will be broadcast live on the interwebs, so if you like large explosions and dam removal, you should probably check ‘er out.

The dynamiting commences between 11am and noon, PST.

http://www.whitesalmonriver.org/live_feed.php

Sage Customer Service - Wow

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:16:37 -0700

Sage bowled me over with their excellent customer service this week. I broke a 6126 ZAxis in BC last month, and sent it in a few weeks ago for repair. Last Thursday it dawned on me that I’d be heading back up to BC in a week and still didn’t have my rod. I called them up, Rebecca from their customer service department was able to find my rod in their receiving department (I had only sent it two weeks prior and they typically take 6-8 weeks), expedited the repair, and it was waiting on my stoop this afternoon - four business days later.

Impressive, doubly so in an era of ever-poorer customer service.

Call on BPA to reject the proposed Klickitat hatchery

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:15:56 -0700

Please take 2 minutes to send a letter off to BPA, calling on them to reject the new Klickitat hatchery being proposed in the “Klickitat Hatchery Complex DEIS.”

Sign the Petition!

The plan, as written, would seriously harm already fragile runs of wild summer and winter steelhead and spring Chinook.

Public comment period ends on October 12th, so it’s imperative that you get your comments in now. Don’t procrastinate, take two minutes and help protect the native fish in this beautiful river.

Avenue of the Giants

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:47:00 -0700

There are a select few places in this world where all the right ingredients come together to grow truly giant lifeforms - The Redwoods of Northern California, Sequoias of the Southern Sierra, and Humans of Houston, TX, to name a few. The Kispiox River in Northern BC is another such place, and grows a super-race of steelhead unlike any other in the world.

At first glance, the Kispiox doesn’t look particularly out of the ordinary, a medium sized stream with beautiful swinging runs, somewhat similar to that of the lower Trask. But as you dig a little deeper, you quickly come to realize that the Kispiox is no ordinary river, and its fish are, simply put, extraordinary.

We began our first day on the Kispiox like every other day in BC, in the wee hours of 11:30am. Within ten minutes, we were floating by Harry Lemire and watching him release a fish that he’d just taken on a single hand rod and a dry line. The Kispiox is that kind of magical place.

We’d planned on fishing Tungsten tips, as that had been the ticket the previous days on the Bulkley, but Mr. Lemire’s feat told us otherwise. Fast forward seven hours of dry lines, Type-3s, and no fish… Ken and I are swinging through upper Potato Patch on opposite sides of the river, Ken with the bright idea to go back to T-11 and myself still stuck on my “Fish will move for the Type-3!!!” mentality.

Within minutes, Ken is into a fish. I put on a Type-6, and keep swinging. Ken loses the fish, and a few minutes later is into another. Same flies, same run, different tips, and I’m getting hosed. I stubbornly continue to swing my Type-6 until Ken hooks his THIRD fish in less than 20 minutes. I rig up 10’ of T-14, go back up to the top of the run where I’d already fished, and about 10 casts later you can guess what happens.

So it went on the Kispiox for three days. Big flies, heavy tips, and the most jawdroppingly large and beautiful sea-run rainbows I’ve ever seen.

Four days later, leaving Smithers on our way back to the US of A, Ken looks at us and says “We’re in the middle of making a huge mistake.”

“What, eating at Dairy Queen?”

“No, leaving this place!!!”

We both get a glimmer of madness in our eyes, bust out the iPhone calendar, and decide to head back up in 4 weeks. See you soon, BC.

39.5”. On a 6126. Good Times.

More pics after the jump…

This fish was mentally unsound.

First landed Kispiox fish, had me screaming and my heart racing like the first time I ever landed a wild steelhead. Black & Blue, a recurring theme…

The Black & Blue Bulkley Special. Two fish in 5 casts on this lil’ number.

PC in BC

Sockeye on the swing.

The release.

Dolly from the Rodeo Run.

Bulkley chromer

Another Bulkley

Back to back on the Bulkley

Wish I’d have seen this beauty in real life, Mark’s beautiful Kispiox hen.

Kispiox.

Too much sour beer for Nicholas

Organized!!!

Panorama bound…

Mark’s “Silver Hilton” :)

The 10 minute guide to dying fly tying materials

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:12:34 -0700

Tying steelhead flies is problematic. At every turn, you discover some new material that’ll revolutionize your tying and fish catching abilities, and you just have to have it in every possible color. One day you’re dropping $50 on seal dubbing, only to discover you love Alec Jackson’s spade body and now need $100 worth of ostrich. Guinea, schlappen, no, wait, saddle hackle, no, wait, grizzly capes in 15 colors and 4 hues of pink. It never ends.

But with just a little bit of work and $25, you can buy enough dye to last you a lifetime, and save gobs of money on materials.

Dying is not only easy, it’s fun, and quick. Follow these steps, and you’ll be dying feathers and fur in vibrant colors in less than 10 minutes from start to finish. No joke.

First off, you need some dye. There are a zillion ways to dye stuff, but if you want the rich, vibrant colors you find in a fly shop, you need to use an acid based dye. Don’t be scared, the “acid” simply means vinegar, the same white distilled stuff you have in your cabinet.

I’ve tried a few brands, and Jacquard is by far the best. Amazon sells it for $3-4 per container.

Next, you’ll need some synthrapol, which is simply an industrial detergent for removing excess dye. Have you ever used shitty fly tying materials, that when exposed to water, lost their dye or worse yet, transferred to dye to the rest of the materials on your fly? That’ll be your end result if you skip the synthrapol. Again, Amazon, for $8.

A stainless steel pot and some tongs and you’re done.

Step 1: Select the materials you plan to dye, and soak them in hot water with some synthrapol to remove any excess dirt. Rinse, and then soak in water, and press firmly to remove any oxygen. This is important! If you’re dying fur or a cape of feathers, you’ll want to put the material in the water skin side up and press at the bottom of the container. You’ll see oxygen bubbling out, and once the bubbles stop coming, you’re done. Skip this step, and there will be air bubbles in the material when you go to dye it, resulting in an uneven dye.

Step 2: Bring a few cups of water to a boil, or enough to fully submerge your materials. Now, add a bit of dye, and a few tablespoons of vinegar (the vinegar sets the dye). You don’t need much dye, literally 1/16 of a teaspoon or so. Some colors are stronger than others, and you’ll figure this out as you go. If you’re colors aren’t as vibrant as you’d like, you can always add more.

Step 3: Once the water is boiling, add your materials. Be sure to keep the materials submerged, and stir around a lot so that they dye distributes evenly. If dying fur or feathers that are on a hide, don’t boil for too long! More than five minutes and you’ll risk disintegrating the skin. Not cool.

Step 4: Remove the materials from the dye bath, and rinse under hot water. Now, in a large bowl add some synthrapol and hot water, and wash the materials until all the excess dye comes out. Rinse under fresh water, drain, and set on a towel to dry.

Step 5: If you’re impatient and want to use your feathers right away, grab your girlfriend’s blow dryer to quickly dry things out. She’s already pissed at you for getting dye and animal skin all over the kitchen, so things can’t get much worse for you at this point.

To date, I’ve had great luck dying Arctic Fox tail, Jungle Cock flank (pictured above), Guinea Hen flank (pictured above) and Golden Pheasant crest/tippets. Marabou and Rabbit would be obvious materials as well. Rather than spend $3 on a little pack of rabbit, buy the hide for $10 and dye and slice your own bunny leech strips.

A good source of materials in bulk is Continental Feathers.

And the finished product, using some JC flank and guinea I dyed yesterday:

The Klickitat needs your voice

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:30:51 -0700

The Bonneville Power Administration is planning for a massive increase in hatchery production on Washington’s Klickitat River. This would include the construction of a new hatchery at Wachkiacus (river mile 16) and an acclimation facility at RM 70.

This is deplorable.

The Klickitat is one of few undammed rivers in the Columbia Basin, and still supports decent runs of wild fish. Doubling the hatchery production on this river is the exact wrong approach, and will impose serious harm to the ESA listed steelhead and chinook.

The BPA is hosting a meeting in Lyle (65 miles from Portland) on Wednesday, August 10th from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Myself and some others from the NFS will be attending and voicing our concerns. If you can, please show up, and voice your support for the wild fish in this amazing river. I plan to be leaving Portland at 4:45 pm if you’d like to hitch a ride, just leave a comment and I’ll get in touch.

If you can’t attend, at least write the BPA in opposition to this horrible plan. COMMENT! You can learn more at the Osprey.

Doing nothing will ensure that this new hatchery is built, and that the Klick as we know it will be placed in great danger.

The Elwha Debacle

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:58:30 -0700

Will Atlas, Kurt Beardslee and Rich Simms have penned an OpEd in the Seattle Times on the forthcoming shitmess stemming from the Elwha Dam removal.

Each year, Washington state releases hundreds of millions of juvenile salmon and steelhead from hatcheries to supplement sport and commercial fisheries. These releases are known to be harmful to wild stocks: interbreeding with wild fish, altering their genetic makeup and reducing the survival of their offspring; competing for space and resources; introducing disease; attracting predators; encouraging overfishing, to cite just a few deleterious impacts. Countless researchers have confirmed that hatchery programs are incompatible with healthy, abundant wild salmon and steelhead.

The stated goal of the Elwha River dam removal is to restore healthy populations of wild salmon and steelhead to the watershed. Yet despite an overwhelming body of evidence confirming the harmful impacts of hatcheries, state, federal and tribal governments have agreed upon a plan that relies heavily on hatchery supplementation. Faced with the single greatest opportunity to restore wild salmon, they’ve opted for business as usual, perpetuating a failing paradigm of replacing native fish with a man-made alternative.

We’ve seen this same thing play out here in Oregon on the Sandy River, however the situation is even more galling on the Elwha. Unlike the Sandy, fish have been unable to pass the Elwha dam in a century, and have been isolated to the bottom 10 or so miles. Moreover, the habitat above the Elwha dam is encompassed by the Olympic National Park, and is some of the finest - if not the finest - salmon and steelhead spawning habitat in the Lower 48. It has been untouched by logging, agriculture, and development for 100 years, and it will soon be teeming with hatchery fish.

We have an opportunity to rebuild an amazing river, but for the WDFW it’s just business as usual - cater to commercial, sport, and tribal fishing interests with the well-being of our fish riding in the backseat.

Appalling.

Nice to find some Chrome

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:52:29 -0700

Barring two trout trips, I took most of April and May off from fishing, waiting for the steelhead to start pushing up the Columbia basin. I went out two weekends ago and with very few fish coming over the dams, didn’t have high hopes. But within just a few hours my hopes were lifted. I was only into the fish for about two seconds before he tore off downstream in the swollen river, opening up my #8 Tiemco 7999. Lesson #1 - a few hundred fish a day coming over the dams is enough. Lesson #2 - don’t use 7999s.

This past weekend I was back at it, armed with an armada of #9 Alec Jackson steelhead irons. From the exact same lie as the previous fish came a hatchery fish of about seven pounds. I’d say the summer’s off to a good start. And while the numbers of fish aren’t yet jaw dropping, the lack of angling pressure certainly is - in 3 days of fishing I’ve seen one other bank fisherman and just a handful of boats. A nice respite from what we’ll be working with in another month.

Feather Fashion has officially gone mainstream

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:53:29 -0700

#1 most emailed article in the NY Times today.

In an improbable collision of cutting-edge chic and a hobby that requires drab waders, fly fishing shops around the country are suddenly inundated with stylish women looking to get in on the latest trend: long, colorful feathers that are bonded or clipped into hair.

Hell, even Coachella looked like a fly tying expo this April:

I’ll take 10!

Bull Trout coming to the Clackamas next week

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:50:07 -0700

In 2002, the ODDFW identified the Upper Clackamas as a prime candidate for reintroduction of Bull Trout. These fish once thrived in the Clackamas, but like Bull Trout everywhere, were seen as a nuisance and were extirpated from the basin by the mid 1960’s.

The goal is to establish a self-sustaining population of 300-500 adults over the next two decades, and the Metolius/Billy Chinook - with one of the healthiest Bull Trout populations in the PNW - will be the source of the fish. Next week, 30 adults, 30 sub-adults, and 1,000 juveniles will be transferred into the upper Clackamas. Yearly transfers will continue for the next seven years, and up to the next 15 years. In other words, the ODFW is committed to a successful reintroduction.

Kudos to the agency for undertaking this ambitious project.

Fukushima and PNW fallout

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:07:00 -0700

Many articles have been written on the Fukushima disaster, but this piece in today’s Al Jazeera illustrates just how disastrous of an event this is. Not only has the radiation release surpassed Chernobyl - by an order of magnitude or more - but the consequences are being felt here on the west coast as well.

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.

Thirty-five percent increase in infant mortality? That’s nothing short of terrifying.

I used to consider myself a proponent of Nuclear power. Coal power not only results in greenhouse gases, but is also the prime contributor to ocean acidification. Natural gas is often the by-product of hydrofracking, a procedure which pumps hundreds of toxins into our waterways, and hydro - well, if you’re reading this blog, you probably know my viewpoints on hydro. Wind and solar seem promising, but amount to a drop in the bucket when it comes to fulfilling our energy demands.

Up until a few months ago, I thought that nuclear power made sense. Sure, the radioactive byproduct needs to be buried somewhere, but I’d happily sacrifice a few hundred barren acres in Nevada instead of destroying our entire ocean and atmosphere. This whole incident makes me question that approach. Granted, Fukushima was built in the 70s, and modern day Nuclear reactor technology is believed to be far safer. But that no longer matters. Tell the public that babies are dying because of a nuclear incident 5,000 miles away, and you can damn well bet that we’re back to spewing CO2 out of coal plants for the next 30 years.

We need some clean energy breakthroughs, and fast. And whoever cracks that nut will make the Gates and Buffett fortunes look like chump change.

Nope, the globe is still warming

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:34:53 -0700

I posted a few days ago on an interesting piece about changing behavior of the sun and the potential for a mini ice age. A piece out today by New Scientist is making hay about this, stating that human induced temperature change will outweigh any mini ice age.

There’s a simple problem with this claim. Let’s assume that grand minima really do cool Earth’s climate: not every climate scientist is convinced of that, but for the sake of argument let’s go with it. Now the question becomes: how much do they cool it, and for how long?

The straightforward answer is: not enough. Last year researchers modelled what would happen to global temperatures if a grand minimum started now and continued until 2100. They found that it would lower temperatures by 0.3 °C at most.

That’s not enough to compensate for our greenhouse gas emissions, which are set to raise temperatures by 2-4.5 °C by 2100. So in the most optimistic scenario, in which the grand minimum has the biggest effect possible and emissions their smallest, a rise of 2 °C would be reduced to 1.7 °C.

One thing is for certain, pumping our atmosphere full of CO2 and raising the acidity of our ocean will be a catastrophe in the longterm, mini ice age or not.

The globe is warming! No! It's freezing!

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:39:34 -0700

Interesting read in The Register today:

What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.

The big consequences of a major solar calm spell, however, would be climatic. The next few generations of humanity might not find themselves trying to cope with global warming but rather with a significant cooling. This could overturn decades of received wisdom on such things as CO₂emissions, and lead to radical shifts in government policy worldwide.

Seeing is believing

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:33:59 -0700

I returned to Portland after a week in San Francisco late on Friday night, and couldn’t wait to get out on the water. Six days in SF makes leaves me a bit frazzled, and the vast sea of green outside of the Boeing window had me breathing a sigh of relief. Home.

Six hours later I was back on the road, under-caffeinated and under-rested, with Chinook on the mind. By the time I arrived at the boat launch, they were already rolling. Every where. Wakes in the skinny water, full on belly flops out of the depths, and the occasional torpedo for cover. Big, chrome, spring Chinooks. The sight alone was worth the drive, but of course we weren’t there to simply fish-watch.

I didn’t touch a fish, but seeing my buddy hook and land two has me ensnared. Amazing animals, and the best part of all is, they’ll eat a fly.

Call on WDFW to discontinue their Snider Creek hatchery

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:55:08 -0700

WDFW is taking public comments on the future of their Snider Creek hatchery, which produces winter steelhead for the Sol Duc. Take five seconds, and call on them to discontinue this hatchery program.

Sign the Petition

Keep Patagonia Wild

Tue, 24 May 2011 17:24:44 -0700

An environmental review commission in the Aysén region of southern Chile has made a potentially disastrous decision, voting to approve the construction of five hydroelectric dams, two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua. The damage these dams would do to the environment is tremendous, and their construction — in a largely unspoiled natural haven — would open the way for further development, including more dams.

…

To deliver the power they would generate — some 2.75 gigawatts — Chile would have to build a 1,400-mile corridor of power lines to the north, creating the longest clear-cut on the planet.

Nice to see this getting some play in the NYT.

Eastern Sierra

Mon, 23 May 2011 23:14:54 -0700

It was 9am and the wind was already ripping off the Eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. So it goes in the Owens River valley, where the Great Basin meets the tallest mountain range in the continental US (sorry, Colorado). When the wind isn’t ripping at 40mph, you’re dealing with an angler every 50 yards, and when you aren’t dealing with an angler every 50 yards, well, you get the idea. To say the Eastern Sierra’s spring creeks are crowded is an understatement.

There is, of course, a reason so many fisherman drive 6 hours from LA or SF to this 8,000’ desert valley to duke it out against the wind and each other. Granted, 6 hours to a Bay Area trout head sounds like a sane day trip, but apart from that, the scenery is breathtaking, and the spring creeks that flow here host some of the highest trout densities on the planet. Hot Creek, a stream scarcely wider than your average Scandi head, is home to some 12,000 adult trout per mile. I for one feel like a champ if I hook 10 of these critters per mile.

The Owens River, of which Hot Creek is a tributary, has similarly staggering numbers of trout, but with a late spring this year, the majority of these fish were still holding down in Lake Crowley until the bugs started hatching. Pools which held upwards of 50 fish when I hit the Owens a few summers ago were ghost towns. We still found some nice fish, including a 20” rainbow that popped off as my buddy was trying to net it, but it was a tough go.

Hot Creek is a different story, however, as a few miles up from it’s confluence with the Owens are a series of hot springs that bring the river temperature to lethal levels. In other words, those 12,000 fish per mile aren’t going anywhere. It’s estimated that every fish on Hot Creek is hooked six times per month on average. This makes for some wary trout, especially the big boys.

We caught fish, but it was tough. Bugs weren’t hatching, and in 4 days of fishing I saw maybe 8 fish rise (a dropping barometer culminating in snow and a wind chill of 15F will do that, I suppose). One of them, an 18” brown on the East Walker, I nabbed on a #20 Rusty Spinner after about 200 casts. The foam line in the backeddy was full of spinners, so it was just a matter of time before he rose to mine. Czech Nymphing, my favorite method for fishing nymphs, doesn’t cut it in 40mph winds as you lose all control over your flies.

Pink bobbers are for douchebags, so I was left with one method: swinging flies. The weather felt like winter steelheading weather, the fish were nowhere to be seen (on the Owens), so when in Rome, why not toss 5’ of T-8 on your sink tip and go to town? It was actually quite fun, swinging up trout for a few days, but not something I’d travel for again anytime soon.

The point of the trip was not fish however, but was to meet up with two of my best college buddies, one of which is moving to Bolivia, permanently, this week. Yes, Bolivia, home of this half Chinook, half Brown, full Badass looking critter. See you down there soon, Dukes.

San Weezie, on the swing of course.

Seven Fisherman. 100 Yards. Welcome to Hot Creek

Wild Steelhead presentation at Tigard Orvis this Saturday with Bill Bakke

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:58:18 -0700

Bill Bakke and I will be giving a presentation at the Tigard, OR Orvis store this Saturday, April 30th, and 10am. Bakke will be discussing dry line steelhead techniques, why he can hook 63 summer fish in a day and you can’t, and his theory of using wee flies for summers. We’ll also be raffling off a couple of his favorite summer patterns that he’s developed over the years.

We will also be discussing steelhead fish conservation issues and hatchery implications, particularly as they relate to the Sandy River.

Bill Bakke is one of the finest dry line steelhead fisherman in the PNW, and is one of the godfathers of the fish conservation movement. He founded both Oregon Trout and the Native Fish Society, and has a wealth of information to share. You don’t want to miss this.

Mark your calendars - hope to see you there!

When and Where:

Saturday, April 30th at 10am
Orvis, Bridgeport Village
7495 SW Bridgeport Rd
Tigard, OR 97224